Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Edible Erdington Potato Day

I've just received this press release about a great sounding event coming up, so thought I'd share it with you. Eleanor Hoad, the organiser, was also involved in our Edible Birmingham event last year when she brought along her apple press from which I enjoyed some delicious fresh juice!

PRESS RELEASE

16th February 2011 for immediate release

Edible Erdington Potato Day

On Saturday 26th February between 11am-3pm visitors to Erdington High Street will be able to join in the ‘Edible Erdington’ Potato Day celebrations. Edible Erdington is a project that has successfully transformed 3 large brick planters on Erdington High Street into vegetable plots. Dreamed up by Erdington Artist in Residence Eleanor Hoad ‘Edible Erdington’ has grown over 60 different varieties of vegetables in the last year with a group of volunteers, right in the high street and local people have welcomed the unusual edible change from flowers to vegetables.

Celebrating the humble potato, Potato Day will have activities for everyone including; a display of some of the 150 different varieties of potato available in the UK, free potato themed food, the chance to taste some of the high street harvest, free seed potato giveaways, Morris Dancing, a hands on session planting potatoes and vegetable growing advice. A ‘Seed Swap’ will take place on the day, bring along your spare seeds to swap.

Visitors will also be able to enter “The Great Erdington Potato Self Portrait Competition”. Everyone will have the chance to create a self-portrait using just a potato and a variety of craft materials! Prizes are available for the best entries and a display of all the entries will be created through the day. There will also be the chance to make a seed bomb to take away. Seed bombs are used by guerrilla gardeners and are a handy portable mix of seeds, compost and clay for planting in unusual locations.

Eleanor Hoad said “ We often overlook the humble potato but they are a great source of vitamin C and fibre and there are so many unusual varieties available that we hardly ever see in the shops. Potatoes are easy to grow at home in the ground or in containers, its amazing how many you can grow even in a small space.”